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T O P I C R E V I E W

ColinBurgess

Nov. 3, 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the dog Laika on her ill-fated journey aboard Sputnik 2.

Here's to that little street dog who unwittingly paved the way for humans to follow — a true space pioneer who will always be remembered and celebrated as probably the most famous canine in history.

Chris Dubbs

Every time I think of her I can recapture that feeling I had when I looked for her in the night sky.

R.Glueck

Interestingly, while speaking at a conference of Soviet and U.S. teachers in 1991, I brought up the subject of little Laika, and the Russian looked at me like I was an idiot. I have to wonder if we in the west don't hold her legacy in higher esteem than do the Russians.

I have a book in my library that actually credits her naming to Yuri Gagarin, which is another lionizing of the Gagarin fable.

That is a nice tribute page on Zak's site. Except that he includes a television camera among the equipment in Sputnik 2.

ColinBurgess

quote:Originally posted by R.Glueck:I have a book in my library that actually credits her naming to Yuri Gagarin...

That story is actually about the naming of the dog Zvezdochka, who flew on the precursory Vostok mission to Gagarin's. And depending on which book you read about the naming of that particular dog, it was either Gagarin or Titov who questioned handling staff a day or two before launch and asked what her name was.

According to the story no one really knew, although they had been calling her either Dymka (Smoky) or Tuchka (Cloudy). Gagarin is said to have been disappointed in the dog having such an ordinary name on such a vital mission and, noticing a nearby worker wearing a "star of hero" badge on his jacket, came up with the name Zvezdochka (Little Star).

It's a nice, comfortable little story, although like many cosmonaut-enhancing stories from that time I tend to view it with great skepticism.

dss65

I suppose this is a slight departure from the subject (or perhaps not), but this string immediately reminded me of something I had read a few years ago.

I own a very wonderful book titled "The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke." One of the many short stories in the book is titled "Dog Star," although a note below that title indicates that the story was "First published in Galaxy, April 1962, as 'Moondog.'" The story is about a fictional dog named Laika. Beneath that note (but before the story), Clarke noted, "I can no longer bear to read this story, now that Laika sleeps forever in the garden of the home we once shared."

I think all of us dog lovers easily understand what he meant. Rest in peace to all the Laikas of this world.

Thanks for the neat story. Dissecting Russian space history is an art rather than a science. Nevertheless, my wife and I adopted a six year old stray yesterday, and have been agonizing over a name. I think "Laika" works just beautifully, in this 50th year of memory. Lemme see what me Mrs. has to say.

On edit: Carole Ann agreed, so "Laika" is the dog's new name.

Colin Anderton

I hope you don't think this in bad taste (I'm an animal lover too), but there was a poem around at the time of Sputnik 2 written by Alan Herbert, a humourist and rights campaigner:

The Christmas stars are back again,Orion has resumed his reign,And Sirius, the brightest lightIs at my window every night.

But foolish man has got his eyeOn rubbish rushing round the sky,On bits of rockets, parts of cones,And, I suppose, the puppy's bones.

Nor do they seem to know it all,If rockets fizzle out or fall.At any moment through the fog,There may descend a bit of dog.

The moon was beautiful,They've made it dull,I much preferThe other side of Hull.

Gilbert

I read the new graphic novel "Laika" on the 50th anniversary of her flight. Although her origins are heavily fictionalized, it's a great read. Laika was a true pioneer.

Robert Pearlman

RIA Novosti reports that a statue to Laika has been unveiled in Moscow.

A bronze monument to a former street dog called Laika, which was the first living creature in space and paved the way for manned flights, was unveiled in northwest Moscow on Friday.

The monument, erected a day before Russia's Cosmonautics Day celebrated on April 12, is a two-meter (6.5 feet) high space rocket with Laika proudly standing on top.

...at the unveiling ceremony the head of the Institute of military medicine, Igor Ushakov, said: "I'm looking at the monument and indeed recognize Laika. She is glancing at the house where the pre-flight preparations and training took place."

According to ITAR-TASS, the monument is "situated at the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya tree-lined walk near the State Military Medicine Scientific Research Institute of the Russian Defence Ministry."

I have this souvenir of this flight, a packet of cigarettes. Curious as to what other unusual souvenirs are out there.

Wehaveliftoff

What breed of dog was Laika?

moorouge

According to Wikipedia Laika was, to give her the posh version, a Canis Lupus Familiaris, i.e. a mongrel.

onesmallstep

I guess that made her the "workers dog," instead of being some petty bourgeois canine, in the eyes of image-conscious Soviet officials. Witness the selection of Gagarin, from peasant stock, instead of Titov, son of a schoolteacher, as first in space.

Jim_Voce

In November 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik 2 into orbit with the dog Laika onboard. And Laika was credited with being the first animal to be launched into orbit. But the Soviets had not developed a reentry capability as yet. So Laika died in orbit.

This contrasts however with the July 22, 1951 launch by the Soviets of two dogs into suborbital space aboard a sounding rocket. The two dogs reached an altitude of 68 miles. So since the rocket that carried the two dogs reached an altitude of 68 miles, then the recovery capsule with the two dogs had to have had a heat shield of some kind.

If the Soviets had a suborbital reentry capability in place in 1951, why did Laika have to die in orbit?